April 17, International Peasants Day
Maria whittaker
Maria WHittaker
La Via Campesina Call to Action
17 April 2010 - Join the International Day of Peasant Struggle
To commemorate the International Day of Peasant Struggle on April 17th 2010, the international peasant movement La Via Campesina calls upon
member organisations, allies and supporters to unite against
transnational corporations (TNCs), which seek complete control over
food and agriculture systems around the world.
On April 17th 1996, nineteen landless Brazilian peasants who were defending their
right to produce food by demanding access to land were massacred by the
military police. Since the massacre at El Dorado dos Carajás, every
year on this date actions are organised around the world by farmers’
organisations, communities, student groups, non-governmental
organizations and activists, in order to demand food sovereignty and
peasants’ rights to produce food.
The year 2009 ended
with three international summits: the Food and Agriculture Organization
World Summit on Food Security in Rome, the World Trade Organisation
Ministerial Conference in Geneva and the United Nations’ Climate Summit
in Copenhagen. At each event, TNCs displayed their intention to control
food and agriculture systems, markets, lands, seeds and water—indeed
all of nature—worldwide. TNCs such as Monsanto Company, Cargill, Archer
Daniels Midland and Nestlé deployed armies of lobbyists at these events
to shape policies to their benefit.
For example, US-based
Monsanto Company is lobbying to receive public subsidies for Roundup
Ready soybeans, which are genetically-modified to resist glyphosate
(sold by the corporation as Roundup), the most widely used herbicide in
the world. Monsanto claims Roundup Ready soybeans reduce climate change
because resistance to Roundup means the soybeans can be grown without
ploughing the soil (which releases carbon dioxide), known as ‘no
tillage’ or ‘conservation tillage’ agriculture. Monsanto argues that it
should therefore be eligible for carbon credits from the Clean
Development Mechanism of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change.
Yet the reality is that
Monsanto and other TNCs are some of the primary contributers to climate
change and other environmental crises, because they promote an
unsustainable model of industrial agriculture.
Additionally, TNCs
exacerbate poverty and economic recession, worldwide. As they
consolidate their control over lands and agricultural markets, TNCs
expel small farmers and peasants from their lands and reduce employment
opportunities in rural areas, thereby swelling urban slums with even
more desperate and unemployed families.
TNCs are making huge
profits while hunger and poverty are on the rise. Thus, an offensive
against TNCs is now a priority for La Via Campesina. Our movement
envisions a world in which TNCs such as Monsanto, Cargill, Carrefour
and Walmart, and their destruction of nature and humanity, will cease
to exist. To replace them will be billions of peasants on small and
medium-sized farms, producing healthy food for local and regional
markets, preserving biodiversity, protecting water aquifers,
sequestering carbon and revitalizing rural economies.
To mark the 17th of
April 2010, La Via Campesina calls upon its members and allies to join
forces and increase resistance against TNCs, and to amplify the voices
and rights of peasants worldwide.
What can you do?
* To raise awareness
about the destruction being caused by TNCs, and the benefits of peasant
agriculture, organise an event or action in your community, school,
city or organization. Possible events might be a protest, public
debate, direct action, film screening, farmers' market, heirloom seed
exchange, song or picture contest;
* Subscribe to La Via Campesina’s 17th of April mailing list to stay informed about the actions being
organised around the world, to receive our mobilisation kit, and to
tell others about your plans. Subscribe here: http://viacampesina.net/mailman/listinfo/via.17april_viacampesina.net
* Tell us what you are planning as early as possible to be included in the activities' list published on www.viacampesina.org
* Send us pictures, articles and videos after the event at viacam...@viacampesina.org